Mos Def: The Ecstatic

Mos Def returns from long strange
trip with excitingly coherent new album

At this point, you could be forgiven
for knowing Mos Def as an actor rather than a musician. His name was
synonymous with the late '90s’ resurgence of politically pugnacious
hip-hop, but after his equally era-defining label, Rawkus Records,
was absorbed into Interscope, Mos went mainstream as a thespian and
plumbed new depths of self-indulgent awfulness as a musician. His
latest, The Ecstatic, arrives on the 10-year anniversary of
his classic debut, Black on Both Sides. Anniversaries are a
time for reflection, and for long stretches of the album, Mos
remembers with a start that he’s an exceptionally talented rapper.
The rootless “experimental” gambits that plagued 2006 train-wreck
True Magic crop up occasionally—the Spanish-language track
“No Way Nada Mas” (cool idea, but rapping in Spanish doesn’t
mean you have to sound like Slowpoke Rodriguez), the cheesy patois
of “Workers Comp”, and a smattering of karaoke-caliber singing.
But on “Twilite Speedball,” “Quiet Dog Bite Hard,” “Life in
Marvelous Times,” and many others, he rivets his limber flow to the
beat and effortlessly produces the kind of good-natured braggadocio
and gymnastic wordplay of his glory days. This isn’t the only sign
that Mos is looking back—there’s a great cameo from old-school
legend Slick Rick, and a reunion track with Talib Kweli, his former
partner in the group Black Star (called “History,” no less). But
it’s also modern, with the kind of exotic pan-global production
(from Euro-club to Turkish-psych) that’s a must in the
post-Timbaland era. (But Mos, why no Auto-Tune? It’s okay now!)
That’s what we call re-centering. Even the Malcolm X sample that
opens the album can’t quell the feeling that Mos’ revolutionary
capital is long-since spent, but it’s good to know that he can
still save his music, if not the world.